BARCELONA '92 OLYMPICS / DAY 8 : Christie Is Great for Britain in 100 : Track and field: The silver medalist at Seoul comes out of retirement to become oldest winner with a 9.96 clocking. Fredericks is second and Mitchell third.

By RANDY HARVEY

Aug. 2, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BARCELONA —

A year after announcing his retirement from track and field, frustrated with chasing Carl Lewis, Great Britain’s Linford Christie became his country’s first 100-meter champion in a non-boycotted Summer Olympics since the “Chariots of Fire” year of 1924.

Along with his gold medal, Christie earned the unofficial title as the world’s fastest human by winning the sport’s most glamorous event Saturday in 9.96 seconds. Namibia’s Frank Fredericks was second in 10.02 and the United States’ Dennis Mitchell third in 10.04.

Earlier, Gail Devers, a former UCLA All-American from Van Nuys, had won the women’s 100 in 10.82.

Christie’s time did not extract the gasps from the crowd that Canadian Ben Johnson’s 9.79 did four years ago at Seoul. A world record, Johnson’s time remained in the books for only three days before he was disqualified for failing a drug test. Nor did Christie’s effort approach Lewis’ existing world record of 9.86.

But Christie was in a world alone Saturday.

“There’s no Carl; there’s no Ben,” the 1988 silver medalist said. “Today is my day.”

Actually, he was only half right. Lewis was not at Montjuic Stadium, not even among the 60,000 spectators, after failing to earn a berth on the U.S. team in the event he won in 1984 and, after Johnson’s disqualification, in 1988.

But Johnson, having served his two-year suspension and returned to competition in 1990, was on the track Saturday, advancing from the first two rounds Friday into the semifinals. That was as far as his comeback would take him.

He finished last in his eight-man heat in 10.70, almost a second behind his winning time at Seoul. The Johnson of Saturday would have finished more than 10 yards behind that of 1988.

Like the Johnson of old, he reacted quickly to the gun. But he stumbled coming out of the blocks and never recovered.

“I’ll come back next year,” he said, forgetting for the moment that the Olympics are run every four years and that he still has the 400-meter relay to run here.

So might Lewis.

After finishing sixth in the U.S. trials last month in the 100 meters, Lewis was a member of the relay team only as an alternate. But when his Santa Monica Track Club teammate, Mark Witherspoon of Houston, collapsed during the 100-meter semifinals Saturday with a ruptured Achilles’ tendon, which could prevent him from competing for as long as a year, Lewis became a probable starter for the U.S. team. He also is competing this week in the long jump.

It could be that Lewis and Christie will race in the anchor leg in the relay, but the British sprinter did not seem concerned about that possibility. Whatever happens in that race, no one is going to take away the gold medal he already has in his pocket,

“Obviously, Carl would have made the final if he had been in the 100,” Christie said. “But two of the runners who beat him in the U.S. trials were there, and for me to beat them is just as great an accomplishment as if Carl were there.”

He referred to Mitchell, of Gainesville, Fla., and Leroy Burrell, of Houston, a former world record-holder in the 100 who finished fifth here. Burrell blamed a false start that he complained was mistakenly charged to him for causing him to lose his concentration.

After finishing behind Lewis, Burrell and Mitchell, in that order, in last year’s World Championships at Tokyo, Christie announced immediately that he was leaving the sport.

He returned by popular demand.

“I had so many letters from people at home who wrote me and said, ‘The Olympics are one year away; give it one more go,’ ” he said. “They believed in me. I didn’t. I thought I had done all I could.”

One of the people who encouraged him was his London training partner, British sprinter Jason Livingston, who has so modeled his career after Johnson’s that Christie nicknamed him “Baby Ben.”

But Livingston was too much like Johnson, having been sent home from Barcelona last week by the British Olympic Assn. because of a positive drug test for an anabolic steroid.

Christie himself lived through some anxious moments because of a positive drug test in 1988 at Seoul. After finishing third in the 100 meters, eventually improving to second because of Johnson’s disqualification, it appeared as if Christie, who, like Johnson, is Jamaican-born, might also be stripped of his medal.

But the International Olympic Committee exonerated him after ruling that he had inadvertently ingested a banned stimulant by drinking ginseng tea. He created a mystery Saturday when he said that the story was fabricated, but he did not elaborate.

Last week, he said that he relived the nightmare when he heard the news about Livingston, although it probably did not overwhelm him as much as it did the British press, which called it the darkest day in Britain’s Olympic history.

In a nobler time, Harold Abrahams became Britain’s first 100 meter champion in 1924. His story was featured in the movie “Chariots of Fire.” The only other British victory in the event was in 1980 at Moscow, when 28-year-old Allan Wells won against a field diluted by the absence of the boycotting Americans.

Until Saturday, Wells was the oldest Olympic 100-meter champion. Christie is 32.

“This is the pinnacle of any athlete’s life, going back to ancient Greece, to be an Olympic champion,” Christie said.

Track and Field Medalists

* MEN’S 100 METERS

GOLD: Linford Christie (Britain)

SILVER: Frankie Fredericks (Namibia)

BRONZE: Dennis Mitchell (United States)

* WOMEN’S 100 METERS

GOLD: Gail Devers (United States)

SILVER: Juliet Cuthbert (Jamaica)

BRONZE: Irinia Privalova (CIS)

* WOMEN’S JAVELIN